“Our purpose is creating transformed commercial healthcare systems that compete on the right basis to make healthcare more affordable for people”

Our Board

Riedwaan Jabaar holds a Science degree from University of South Africa (Operations Research and Information Systems), a post graduate diploma in business management from University of Witwatersrand and an MBA degree from the Gordon Institute of Business Science (University of Pretoria). He has worked in the healthcare industry for the past 19 years, holding various risk management positions. 15 years were spent at Discovery Health where he was a senior risk analyst, playing various roles including a number of leadership portfolios, ultimately headed up the Health Intelligence Division, which included units responsible for data quality, information delivery and innovation, supporting both the operational and risk divisions within Discovery Health.

Dr Gustaaf Wolvaardt is a specialist in Internal Medicine with post graduate qualification in higher education and management.

On leaving academic medicine he was appointed as the first South African Health Attaché based at the South African Permanent Mission in Geneva. On returning from Switzerland he established the Foundation for Professional Development (FPD) in 1997 where he serves as the Managing Director.

Dr Brian Ruff is a Wits qualified Rheumatolgist and also has a qualification in health economics from UCT.

Around 1994 Brian was involved in the transitional arrangements from the apartheid state to the new state via the Gauteng Province Strategic Management Team and the Hospital Task Team. In 1999, after a brief stint at the National Treasury, he joined Discovery Health where he was the Head of Strategy and on the Executive Committee. He was instrumental in the founding and maturation of the Risk Intelligence Division – responsible for clinical data analysis and health information report generation in regard to the cost and quality of healthcare services provided to the membership of the Funds managed by Discovery. Additionally, he initiating and managed various distinctive divisions including the Integrated Care Unit (Discovery Health’s Disease Management work) and the Access Innovation Division (concerned with supply side innovation and reform); wherein collaborative supply side innovation was initiated and supported.

He also worked on a macro economic model of the SA private healthcare sector. The insights from this work was to inform the role the funder plays in aiding providers of care in their provision of integrated, prudent and quality care to the members of the Schemes.

Dirk Wagner works with new clients, helping them define what they really need and understand what is possible and practical, before going back to the development team and coming up with innovative ways to meet those needs. As Business Development Manager, he is also responsible for ensuring client growth and retention, and is currently focusing heavily on the healthcare sector as a key growth market for Stone Three technology and solutions.

Dirk is equally interested in software engineering, and the entrepreneurial / commercial side of venture technology. Using technology to improve lives is something that he is passionate about, and get the opportunity to make a really positive contribution through some of the revolutionary healthcare innovations they are currently developing for local and global clients.

Our Executive Team

Dr Brian Ruff

A Wits qualified Rheumatolgist, with a qualification in health economics from UCT, Dr Ruff has been involved in the Healthcare sector for over 20 years with experience in Strategic Health Management, Macro-economic models of the SA Private Sector, Clinical data analysis on the and cost and quality of healthcare services, and collaborative supply side innovation.

Riedwaan Jabaar

With 19 years of risk analyst experience in the healthcare industry, Riedwaan headed up a Health Intelligence Division in Discovery Health before forming PPO Serve together with Dr Brian Ruff. His units were responsible for data quality, information delivery and innovation, supporting both the operational and risk divisions within the company. He has a Science degree from University of South Africa (Operations Research and Information Systems) and a post graduate diploma in business management from University of Witwatersrand and an MBA degree from the Gordon Institute of Business Science (University of Pretoria).

Dr Chantal Hadfield

The Clinical Executive at PPO Serve, she has married her passion for execution and change with the company’s vision of creating transformed healthcare systems. She has a postgraduate qualification in Health Economics, along with her MBChB, and has served on the Executive Committee of the Medical Advisors Group for many years as treasurer, and recently as Chairperson (MAG is associate group of SAMA representing medical advisors in the South African Medical Scheme, health insurance administrator and managed care environments).

Lorné Liebenberg

Lorné has 21 years of health industry experience having held clinical and business development roles in the public and private health sectors in South Africa and the United Kingdom. She spent a large part of her career in the private healthcare insurance sector working for Discovery Health and BUPA, the largest private healthcare funders in South Africa and the United Kingdom respectively. Her experience includes business strategy and strategic marketing development and implementation, product development and implementation, project management, marketing, business analysis, design and implementation of systems and business intelligence. Prior to joining PPO Serve, she was the co-founder and Executive Director of Innovation and Product Development for Coalesce

Dr Howard Manyonga

An Obstetrician and Gynaecologist with an MBA, he previously ran a private practice for eight years before going into health systems management. He has headed Women’s Health at the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute where he led the effort to develop task shifting models in maternity and cervical cancer screening. Most recently he was the COO of Marie Stopes South Africa.

The Foundation of Professional Development was established in 1997, as a higher education institute. FPD’s mission is to catalyse social change through developing people, strengthening systems and providing innovative solutions

FPD are an ideal partner for PPO Serve in terms of technical expertise, breath of operations, healthcare credibility and influence.

Stone Three develops bespoke enterprise software engineering solutions for industry leaders. Through the process of co-discovery, we have partnered with each other to overcome the healthcare system’s technological challenges of having a system that is more than just an EMR. The Intelligent Care System is one that will enable the Integrated Clinical Consortia to not only bring their encounter data to the team, but allow for measuring and monitoring of their daily work and the performance of the ICC™ for reporting to the medical schemes.